The Ministry of Communications has secured a US$4 million system that is expected to aid the authentication and verification of all online transactions in the country.
The system known as Public Key Infrastructure will allow both the public and private companies authenticate every data they receive while protecting their own data from possible hacking.
The system forms part of the government’ E-Transform project which seeks to digitize all transactions within the public sector. Minister for Communications, Ursula Owusu Ekuful explains that the system will provide an additional layer of authentication which secures digital transactions
“This key broken into two; the public key is given out so before anyone can read or open your document, they need the private key so if you are not the who actually issued out that document it will be impossible for anyone to open it and to read it, so it helps with issuance of digital certificates and electronic signatures of documents,” she explained.
“Nowadays it’s easy to fake all kinds of things using the same technology so how do we ensure that the documents that you are for example filing in court are the real authentic documents.
You need this public key infrastructure to be able to authenticate that, it makes it difficult if not impossible to falsify electronic and digital signatures,” she added.